Defeating Malaria

On the PBS News Hour last week, it was reported that The Lancet, a long-standing world medical journal, contained a study from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the status of malaria. The study indicated that in 2010 nearly twice as many individuals died from this disease than had formerly been reported. The more recent statistics suggest that 1.24million people died from the disease in 2010. The Foundation does much good medically to eradicate epidemiological diseases in the more challenging parts of the world. This is admirable, generous, and apparently needed.

Usually such work focuses on prevention, including mosquito eradication, introduction of a genetically modified mosquito to counter the parasitic carrying variety, and common sense use of mosquito nets, and on distribution of various medicines for both prophylactic and therapeutic purposes. But there is help beyond and in absence of the kind referred to above.

When I was in the Peace Corps in the late 60’s there was concern about malaria in the locations where we were being sent to serve in the Philippines. We were offered a prophylactic pill. Where I was assigned there was a more acute form of the disease and no advance prevention, other than using a mosquito net, which I used. While traveling in a remote part of the island where I lived, the smoke of smoldering fires was used to keep the insects at bay. Nevertheless, I contracted a disease referred to as Black Water Fever, this acute form of malaria, which was considered to be fatal frequently.

This wasn’t known initially, as the diagnosis was made several weeks into the symptoms, when I was actually well on my way to healing and quite free from some of the more challenging aspects of the condition. How did I get through this debilitating disease? It was through steadfast spiritual healing. The Peace Corps physician acknowledged as much. There was clear understanding of divine power and presence that had no geographical limitation behind this healing result. The experience also included help from a caring and loving practitioner of Christian Science. But suffice it to say, there is help available in turning to a sense of one’s God-given dominion over such unhealthy conditions and predictions that can aid the eradication of such epidemics. It was my experience and it can be that of others.